Monday, 30 July 2007

I went to look for the music shop at the Keikyu department store. It was just a small section of the larger store and didn't really have much to offer.

After work I made some rice with onion and chopped up carrots. While writing this post, I managed to burn the onion but you couldn't really taste it. I added seaweed, pepper, garlic powder, salt and the pièce de résistance some tuna.

To my surprise it actually taste nice despite when Jesse came home he noticed the misty haze of smoke I created.

Sunday, 29 July 2007

Gf asked me on leaving her apartment whether we should take an umbrella. Stupid me said no and guess what, it rained.. a lot!

After exiting Asakusa station we could see to the left a building with a strange shape on top.

To me I thought it looked like a gold sperm, but gf called it a "golden sh*t". Apparently it's called the flame d'or (Golden flame).

I bought a 500 yen umbrella from the local Family Mart and made our way to the temple. First stop was the Kaminarimon Gate. It is the gate that faces the road leading up to the temple.

We then went through a tourist trap souvenir arcade called Nakamise. Get your red lantern keyrings here!

During this time, we went into a favourite sweets shop of gf's. There we had some red bean sweets. Mine was a hot red bean paste with a rice paste and she had a cold one with candied fruit. I'm addicted to red bean now.

After that we moved through the next Hanzonmon gate.

Finally we arrived at the Sensoji temple. There were many young girls dressed as anime characters with elaborate costumes and make-up. This was much better than the "punk" Harajuku girls.

After Asakusa we caught a train to Ginza. I was interested there to go to the Sony Building where there are floors of sony products and demos which was a lot of fun to play with as you can see.

I videotaped myself on a television using a sony camcorder. This was a nice toy. I also did extreme closeups of my eye, nose and unshaven chin that I'm sure the sony staff were pleased about.

From there we went to the Kabukiza building. This is a rather ornate building where they do Kabuki theatre. I wouldn't mind watching a show. I hear they do english headsets explaining the japanese dialog.

The rain was coming down quite heavily and the wind was strong. I only had my slides on my feet which were very slippery from lack of traction. At one stage the wind blew the umbrella inside out and blew the plastic cover completely off leaving me only with the skeleton frame. So much for a 500 yen umbrella.

Saturday, 28 July 2007

Tonight, there would be the biggest fireworks show in Tokyo. Gf was initially skeptical about going, but I did my best ten year old impersonation and said, "Can weee?". With that persuasion she couldn't relent to say no.

Soon after I arrived we left for Ryoguku, the opposite side of the river to Asakusa. It was decided that this would be the best vantage point to see the fireworks.

There were many girls wearing the yukata (a summer style kimono). I don't know what it is but it looks real sexy on these japanese girls. I asked gf if she had one but she said it was back at her mother's house (along with her school uniform). hmm..

While there were crowds there, it was less busy than I had expected.

Many people were covering the streets with tarps to sit on. At one point I had to make my way across the sea of tarps. I accidently stepped on one and a japanese man slapped my leg because I put my foot on his dirty tarpaulin.

This is the first sign of a japanese man being upset (with me). I must make more of an effort to do it more often.

These people were so far away from where the fireworks were. Gf explained that they don't have to strain their necks to look up. Me, I like to have the fireworks exploding overhead just narrowly missing the falling debris on its way down.

The fireworks were really good. Sometimes it looked like the sky was getting set on fire, they set off so many at once. If you listen carefully you can hear the oft said phrase when something is truly good, "Sugoi!!" Ahem, yes, that was me.

Friday, 27 July 2007

I was meaning to come back home after work but the Green Shochu changed all that.

Derek and Thomas wanted to go to an Izakaya. At first I said I wanted to go home, but somehow I decided to go along with them.

I was only going to have a few drinks of the green shochu, a liquor similar to sake, but potato instead of rice. It turned into two bottles of 20% green and quite a bit of food. I had to go to the bathroom, so the waitress showed me the way but I had a little trouble getting back to our table.

I forgot what the kanji was for ladies and mens bathroom was, so I just took the bathroom that had the toliet seat up. When I had to get back, it was like a labyrinth, as the place was kind of dark, and every cubicle looked exactly the same.

The gf messenged me that she left her charger at my place. I told her where I was and said I was a little drunk.

After speaking for a lengthy time about God, Yes, I know it's an engrossing topic when you are drunk, we stumbled back to Yokohama station and caught the train back to Tomioka. It was crowded as usual.

On arriving home, Jesse, Derek and myself had a big D & M about women and God and I bailed out for a while, going to the bathroom and then going to bed. It's 2:43am, and somehow I have to get over this impending hangover that I'm sure to have.

Wednesday, 25 July 2007

I finished work at around 5pm, but I had to wait until 730pm before gf was to meet me at Yokohama. Tonight we went again to the Korean BBQ I went to with Derek and Thomas.

We did an "all you can in 70 minutes" for 2600 yen each, which we did our best to get our money's worth. It was real tasty as before with lots and lots of meat. Just what a growing boy needs.

After we had a stroll around and ended up in the Don Quijote store once more. I couldn't resist to take this photo. I hope that in my time here in Japan that classic, bad english that I see here will be immortalised here forever in my blog.

We arrived back at Tomioka not long after that. Gf turned on the television to watch the Japan vs Saudi Arabia game on television. She is going nuts in Japanese yelling at the TV. I had no idea she was THIS into soccer.

Sunday, 22 July 2007

This was mainly a very lazy day. I was thinking of going to Ginza or Asakusa, but in the end we stayed in.

In the evening after sleeping most of the day, we thought to walk into Shinjuku from Yotsuya. I thought it was far way, but it was probably only 45 minutes to an hour walking slowly.

On the way there I got a printout onto my passbook of my first pay. I wanted to immortalise how much I was paid. It's a cool trick. All you do is put in the book and it knows where to print. It didn't even ask for a PIN number which is weird.

We walked the streets of Shinjuku going past many streets of restaurants, one more appetising than the next. Unfortunately there were also a few UFO catcher arcades that yes, I couldn't refuse and I had to try to win another prize.

After trying a few times to get a Super Bros Mario, I tried my hand at a little "Gachapin".

For anyone who doesn't know, this is a cute little green dinosaur that can do ANYTHING.

He can ride a dirt bike, do karate and other amazing feats. I put in about 500 yen all up, so I pretty much paid for it anyway, but it was worth it I think.

Saturday, 21 July 2007

As a joke I put on my shirt a sticker from one of the other classes. It has a skull and crossbones and says, "Oops, I spoke Japanese!".

I left this on as I caught the train to Shinjuku. I thought it was hilarious. The Japanese like always, didn't comment although one man looked at me a little strangely. Yoko put this on my mouth, so to get her back, I later put it on the front of her shirt and she forgot all about it. tee hee..

We decided to meet at Shinjuku. Yoko wanted to go to the video/CD rental store, Tsutaya to get some movies. They had a deal for the weekend, five CDs for 1000 yen and half price DVDs. Yoko got two anime ones, Nausicaa being one of them. It cost only a bit over 400 yen.

We had a curry rice meal and then went to Krispy Kreme. The line was noticeably shorter but they still gave everyone a free glazed donut. I joked that we could now go that I was satisfied. I got a lemon creme filled glazed donut and a chocolate one. Yoko had a strawberry one with icing sugar and a chocie one as well.

We decided to walk to Yoyogi station instead of catching the train there. It was surprisingly not as far as I'd have thought. We then catched the Chuo line back to Yotsuya.

We watched Nausicaa on her laptop. This is a Studio Ghibli film and like the other ones I've seen it was probably a bit too long and complicated, but still enjoyable. Luckily, there weren't any UFO catchers around.

Thursday, 19 July 2007

The gf had to go to her class meeting in the morning, so while she was there I went into Shinjuku to waste a few hours.

It goes without saying that I was going to spend some time in the music store where I bought my guitar. I am SO tempted with all these reasonably priced instruments. They are a lot less than the prices I paid in Australia.

A top of the line Roland electronic drum kit that retails for around AUS $12,000 was around $4000 here. I wonder how much it would cost to ship it back to Australia? It's not something that I would buy now though.

I bought a few cheap picks and relented from buying a pack of strings. Another thing is that the string sets here are around 500 yen which is again practically nothing.

Once I met up again with gf outside the Studio Alta screen, we went to eat tempura at a nearby restaurant. Tempura is basically batter fried everything. It was strange eating vegetables that way but it tasted pretty good. I didn't have the shrimp though.

From there we made our way to Odaiba, an island precinct in Tokyo bay. It basically consisted of shopping malls, an artificial beach and a ferris wheel. Oh, and a downsized replica of the Statue Of Liberty.

One mall was called, Aqua City, where we looked through a Toys R Us and I even found a shop selling "nude beer".

This is in front of the Fuji TV Headquarters building.

We were feeling quite hungry so we ate at an Thai restaurant called Cafe Mangrove in the Venus Fort complex which strangely looks like an Italian street with fake blue sky.

We ordered some marinated chicken and a green thai curry with chicken and rice. The spicy food gave me hiccups, but it tasted delicious.

From there we went to an amusement arcade. It started innocently enough. The UFO catchers are the claw machines that manouver behind glass to grab a stuffed toy.

Somehow I managed to pump around about 1500 yen into them and got on a first go, a banana pillow. Unfortunately I got a little excited and thought I could win some more.

I called it "Daiby". I consider it a boy. I mean how can a banana be a girl, right? Anyway it's a baby for gf and myself. I left it in gf's capable hands. I really got it for her. Isn't that sweet?

Wednesday, 18 July 2007

Ok. The plan was that I was going to go home after work at Yokohama, do my laundry, watch J-horror movies and sign for my registered mail.

Then I got the call..

The gf and I earlier discussed that we could wait until the weekend to meet up again. Now she called me to come over and that she was missing me. I really needed to wash my clothes as I don't have much left to wear.

I was in the Tomioka supermarket when I got the call. I ended up buying a few things and headed home to get ready to go back out again. I decided to wash my clothes anyway and for the mail, I left a message for Derek or Jessie to sign it off for me.

I was in Yotsuya by 9pm. We went into the convenience store and got an icecream and some drinks, including a 14% peach and honey flavoured sake. Gf made some spaghetti for us. The sake was probably too sweet, but it made me feel quite light headed.

Sunday, 15 July 2007

Derek and Jessie were going to go to Hiroshima last night but because of a typhoon, they cancelled the shinkansen to get there.

Still determined to go, they left today instead. The good news for me is that gf and I have the place to ourselves for the weekend so hooray for us. The timing is great.

The mission today was to get some icecreams and bubble bath. The bubble bath was my idea of course. Gf's bathtub is little more than a deeper sink to the floor. Ours on the other hand it is possible (just) to fit two people.

Because of the rain we didn't go too far. The typhoon seems to have missed us.

We went looking around Tomioka station. I haven't really ventured past my station and I was surprised to see a whole lot more shops just a stones throw away. There was a 100 yen shop and the UFJ bank nearby as well. I must learn to venture out more than I have and actually see things.

For dinner tonight, we had some curry rice. While gf claims it was a joint effort, I have to say she did the most of the actual cooking. What I did was basically cutting the onion. It tasted amazing though. We ended off the night watching "Pan's labyrinth". This is a really good film. It deserves all the good reviews.

I forgot about the icecream and the bubble bath was nowhere to be found. What is it with these people? Who in the world does not want a bubble bath?!

Saturday, 14 July 2007

For a change I got gf to come to Tomioka instead of me going to Tokyo for the weekend. It has been raining so much. There is a typhoon which is headed towards Japan and with it, all the rain.

For dinner tonight I made her a spaghetti with olive oil, parmesen cheese, a bit of margerine, and chicken. It tasted pretty good but it needed a little something.

I added salt and black pepper. You can just about add anything with black pepper and it tastes a whole lot better. It wasn't my best meal but gf ate it all so it must have been alright.

Gf had been to her mother's place, Hamamatsu near Nagoya. She brought back a few interesting things. Most unusual were the eel bone chips. It makes me think that Japanese will turn anything that doesn't kill you into food.

Friday, 13 July 2007

The gf didn't have anything to do today so she came with me to the guitar shop again in Shinjuku. Thankfully today it was actually open.

I saw the guitar I was after right at the counter. There was a black Steinberger Spirit GT-Pro standard for 55,100 yen and a white deluxe version for 63,000 yen. I tried both but prefered the white one. For the colour and also the humbucker at the neck sounded better than the single coil of the black one.

I managed to talk him down to 60,000 yen (about AU $565). This is a reasonable price and it included a bag and string adapter. The sales guy didn't speak much english but Yuko helped as usual.

I paid with my australian credit card. I haven't checked if my pay from work has gone through. At least I'll have quite a few interest free days to pay off the largest purchase I have made so far after my rent.

I didn't have much time when I arrived back at Tomioka. I webchat to my mother and showed her my new guitar. I already have about six guitars in Australia. I was surprised by her reaction. I expected worse. All she said was "Couldn't you wait until Christmas?"

Hmm. At least I have a guitar that I take with me anywhere on planes.

I arrived at Yokohama close to punch-in. I've been leaving later and later, not leaving much time if I make a mistake or to rest. Again, it was another quiet day. I only had a ability test to do. I didn't do any classes. After a day off it was just what I needed.

Thursday, 12 July 2007

I finished from the Yokohama school yesterday much earlier than last week because now I do an earlier shift. I met up with gf at Yotsuya where like everywhere else it was raining quite hard.

Today I had a few things that needed to be taken care of. I finally have my bank card so yes, I can get money out but, I can't really because it looks like at the moment there isn't any money there to take out. I've been told the money should be in my account the 13th or the 14th.

We went to Shinjuku. First, we went to HQ. They asked me to fax them a copy of my passbook. Seeing that I was going to go there anyway I decided to walk into the office instead and get them to do a photocopy there. I was very casual and unshaven so this may not have been the best idea.

At HQ, I bought a can of "V x 11". It's an energy drink like the "V" energy drink we have in Australia. This must eleven times better right? Well I think it tastes very similar, but I don't think it was as strong as that.

I bought a pretty cool tshirt with a jap cartoon guitarist playing in front of amps.

It says on it, "To danger, I will pay no heed" and "I don't want to put the doubt in your mind, in my head you're just fine".

What tha? Well that's what I want. Shirts with bad english or something cool written in japanese.

We went to look at a guitar shop but half of it was closed for renovation. I tried the expensive version of the guitar I was looking for but I REALLY am not looking to spend $2000 on a guitar. It was ok but I wanted to try the guitars in the closed part of the store. It really annoyed me that I couldn't.

Finally I also got the screw for my sunglasses and they didn't charge me for it. I'm sure having gf there helped me not having to speak japanese to the staff.

I got a new pair of headphones. I spent eons trying to decide which one to get. I checked all the specs and I felt sorry for gf looking at me in disbelief that I would take so long. Gf picked up some really nice new pants she had altered.

Monday, 9 July 2007

I am looking for something small enough that would be transportable on aeroplanes. One store had a secondhand Hohner G3-T, a black steinberger copy for 39,800 yen (approx AU $400), but it wasn't in the best condition.

Gf had to leave home to get to uni at 9am. I was at Ochanimizu at that time but I soon found out the shops didn't open until 1030-11am so I had a LONG time to wait.

At the station when I arrived there were japanese cheerleader girls giving away free energy drinks. It lifted my spirits at least.

I tried the guitar and it sounded pretty good. I was hoping for a discount around $300 but he didn't budge at all. I decided to leave soon after that. It was getting close to midday and I wanted a rest before work.

I managed to catch the train in the opposite direction. Luckily I realized this at the next stop, Akihabara. I caught a rapid train in the right direction but it didn't stop at Yoyogi where I wanted to change trains instead going on to Shinjuku.

Finally I caught the right trains and ended up back home at 130pm. I was drained and not really in any mood to go to work.

Saturday, 7 July 2007

Every shift today is full. That means I have seven classes so it will very busy.

I caught the train back to Tomioka but I still can't get myself to leave any earlier. I ended up leaving home again about 730pm. I talked to my brother for a while and a friend said that there was a Live Earth concert broadcast live on the internet so I ended up watching a bit of that as well.

Gf decided she would meet me at Shibuya. I said at Hachiko the dog which was funny, as this is where EVERYONE meets up here. By the look on her face she wasn't too impressed.

This is the famous dog. The story goes that this dog used to go to the station every day to meet it's owner but he died and the dog still came until 11 years later he died as well. If you look close to the picture you can see the japanese dude behind the dog giving the thumbs up like me!

This is the big intersection outside the train station and near Hachiko.

This is the busy saturday night main thoroughfare that leads to my favourite gaijin bar, Tasu-ichi.

Gf and I went to a Korean BBQ because after searching for somewhere to eat, this looked like the best choice. The heat from the hotplate was making my eyes tired, but the food was pretty good. It was my first taste of steak tartare or for a better description, raw beef and egg. I prefer the beef cooked, but I even prefer it more than tongue and cheek that Yoko assures me tastes good.

After we ate, we still had a bit of time to look at the giant Don Quixote, a giant "Crazy Clarks" type discount everything store.

Friday, 6 July 2007

The gf decided instead of going home on one of the last trains back to Tokyo, she decided she'd stay the night and get an early train in the morning.

I was more than happy for her to stay. We watched the movie and there really wasn't much time to walk down to the station. So.. that means we had to get up at 6am so she could get to uni by 9am.

I have never gotten up so early in Japan it just about killed me. Walking down to the station wasn't too bad. It was walking back alone back up the hill to my place that was a struggle.

There I was in my singlet and shorts stumbling back watching the salarymen make there pilgrimage to the station. I imagined they were thinking "pfft.. gaijin!" Once I got back I virtually tumbled back into bed until a sensible time of lessee hmm, midday?

Today is sub day so not too busy at work. Derek was late to get there, so I covered his first lesson. Normally I am only obliged to do the last three shifts of the night but I was asked nicely so I did it.

I saw Derek on the train and for some reason I said out loud "O-manko" quickly realising I was actually saying something in japanese that was not quite good to say on a train. Oops.

I went into the supermarket and got some bread, 98 yen for eight slices. That is cheap so I got two. Also I bought Calpis as usual and some more Crunky. Love the Crunky.

Thursday, 5 July 2007

I had absolutely nothing planned for today, my day off. I know, I know I'm near Tokyo. The gf is busy today so I don't feel like going around by myself.

There are some guitar shops in Ochanimazu near her place but it's not worth going there just for that. Although, it would be nice to see some pretty guitars and things.

I already have too many back home, but it would be nice to have something like a headless, portable guitar I can take anywhere. There are some secondhand Les Pauls going for a reasonable price that are tempting. I guess it will depend on their condition.

What I HAD to do today was my laundry. I have not done one in about two weeks I think. I'm starting to "recycle" my clothes I wore before. Eww.. The washing machine made the biggest noise like it was going to explode. I'm sure Derek and Jesse would have been woken by the sound.

After I hung up my washing I got on the net. I'm trying to sign up for Amazon Japan but it doesn't look like there is enough space to put my full japanese address. I'm thinking of getting some headphones. I don't know if I can wait till I go back to Australia to bring my other pair here. I wish I had brought them.

I also checked out Ebay. I haven't even got paid or my japanese bank account set up, yet I feel the need to spend if you haven't already noticed.

Gf sent an SMS asking about my day and later on asked if I wanted to have dinner with her. It was about 5pm and even though I didn't do too much I was a little tired. I called her back and asked if she wanted to come over here and I'd cook her dinner.

She arrived quite quickly. I hid the garbage bags in a cupboard and walked down to meet her at the station. We went to the supermarket to get some things. I got Calpis, soap, bathroom cleaner, chicken and a bottle of my favourite Brown Brothers Crouchen Riesling wine from Australia! I can't believe it when I saw it there.

I made a rice, vegetables, onion and chicken dinner, and if I say so myself it was a feast. Gf liked it and ate all I had given her. We watched "Blades Of Glory". It's not a bad film but not great. There are some parts that were hilarious though.

After that I showed where Keikyu Tomioka was on Google Earth (It took me ages to find it last night), and also Brisbane in Australia. We went to sleep around midnight. My boring day off has been better than expected.

Monday, 2 July 2007

I know this is a little bit late (by a day or two), but it's already been one month since I have been in Japan!

It feels like yesterday that I arrived. I have to say that I still think it's great to be here. I haven't had any big issues come up yet.

I'm not exactly sure how I 'm supposed to pay my mobile phone bill and health insurance. Damn, I haven't even worked out the crazy garbage issue. (EVERYTHING is burnable if the fire's hot enough)

Anyway, let's talk about my day. Shall we?

The gf was meant to be at class by 9am but neither of us could get up, so she missed it. She said not to worry about it. I was fine to go, but she was just as tired as I was from the day before.

I left her house about 1130am and got home by 1pm. It was absolutely pouring with rain. Looks like summer has really arrived in Japan. I was very weary, but I tried to keep myself from falling asleep in my bed.

Once I got to work I got a call from head office. it looks like my school director didn't see me making my way into the building and said I was late to them. I clocked my card on time so no problems there.

My first class was a no show but the rest of the day was full. As usual I made a few of my classes run over time making me late for the next one.

I went to the supermarket to buy a few basics. The Crunky AND the Pocky were on sale so you know I HAD to buy both of them. I'm not going to be losing the weight I was hoping for. I want abs. Is that too much to ask?

Sunday, 1 July 2007

As usual we slept in till around midday, but I was happy to go around sightseeing.

First we caught the train to Harajuku. Unfortunately we didn't see the colourful, creatively dressed fashion victims I had seen in books. Instead there were many punk looking rejects and a guy in a dress. What a disappointment.

We went around the corner to the Meiji-Jingu Shrine which was cool. Here I am at the first Torii gate to the shrine. There were another two or three getting closer to it, but once you see one Torii gate you kind of seen them all. Well, it's the only picture I took, so this is it.

We washed our hands and mouths before entering the shrine. Here I'm trying to get gf to tell me what this place is called.

I'm trying my best "cool" pursed lips pose. This is from inside the shrine area. There were a LOT of tourists here. This is pretty much the first time I have seen more foreigners than japanese.

I'm trying to tell gf to say, "Hi, to the video" but she keeps on saying just "Hi". I think it's cute.

Next, we went to Yoyogi Park to chill and saw Rockabilly dancers, actual bands with mini amps and picnicers. This would be a nice place to bring my guitar and for us to have a picnic also. Gf and I looking over the fountains.

From Yoyogi Park we walked towards Shibuya to her favourite french bakery that was about 10-15 minutes away and got some pasteries. I mentioned to gf that I saw a girl on a train with a Krispy Kreme donut box and she knew there was one in Shinjuku.

So.. Next stop Shinjuku!

This is a part of the lineup for the Krispy Kreme shop you can see on the left hand side of the photo. Along the right side of the bridge you see here is the line. The lineup continues along the front of the shop as well. This is a 2 hour line! We went later on, only waiting 30 minutes. They gave us a free donut in line. I bought a dozen donuts to which gf said "Really?!"

Before we went home I wanted to take a picture of the lights of Shinjuku. Even after walking through the seedy streets of Kabukichō, I couldn't find the ideal place for the perfect photo, but this is an example.

About Me

For some reason I have decided to leave my fine, if a little ordinary well paying job and family home where I don't pay rent and move to a country where I won't be able to read and barely speak the language. I have been to Tokyo before for a very short time. I was lost, confused and virtually on another planet. Why am I doing this? Because I HAVE to. I need to get out of the comfort zone I am in and really begin to live my life, start again and hopefully be happier overall. When I am sober I am thinking, "What the hell are you thinking?!?" but when I'm drunk I'm thinking "WOO HOOO!". So maybe if I'm drunk all the time I will accept this better.